11 Oct 2010

FA Level 1 – Waves Part 1

FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION LEVEL 1 COACHING – “WAVES”

This is the third in a series of blogs relating the Football Association Level 1 coaching course. The Football Association Level 1 coaching session “Waves” is a fun session that encourages players to combine together in threes, to pass and move down the pitch quickly, before eventually finishing up with a shot on goal.

Over the next five blogs, we have taken the basic Football Association Level 1 session “Waves” and added 9 additional progressions, all of which have videos and accompanying downloadable, printable PDF’s, that you can take to training with you.

• The first “Waves” blog demonstrates the basic set up for coaching “Waves” and adds a progression which involves the coach encouraging the players to pass and move quicker through setting a time trial for the players to end up with a shot on goal.
• The second “Waves” blog involves two further progressions. The first being the players have to complete the practice in the time trial, but now have to shoot first time and turn with the ball before shooting.
• The third “Waves” blog, again features two further progressions. Both progressions have the time trial element, which players love, as it makes the session fun and competitive. This time the players have run onto a pass in a shooting zone, before shooting first time. The second progressions, is that the players have to pass to a breaking wide player, who crosses for the other players to attack the cross and score.
• The fourth “Waves” blog, encourages the players to switch play before having a shot at goal and demonstrates a session where two teams attack different goals at the same time and helps players to play with their heads up, find space, attack quickly, before shooting at goal.
• The fifth and final “Waves” blog, starts to introduce Football Association Level 2 content, with the first session being a 3 v 1, the second a 3 v 2 and finally a 3 v 3 conditioned game

WAVES – START OF THE PRACTICE

ORGANISATION

• Organise players into groups of threes
• Organise an area of about 50 yards long, by 20 yards wide. Adjust to suit the age and ability of the players
• Goals at either end, with goalkeepers
• Lay out a shooting line – 10 -15 yards from the goal. The players must shoot before this line
• Supply of balls, bibs and maker discs

THE PRACTICE

• The first group of three start by one goal and must decide between themselves how they start, pass, move and progress to shoot at the opposite goal.
• All three players must touch the ball at least once as they progress.
• The group must end up with a shot on goal from outside of the shooting line.
• Groups alternate from end to end after shooting
• Competition is to see which team of three can score the most goals from a given number of attempts. Rebounds count

COACH TO ENCOURAGE

• Communication between players, both verbally and with hand gestures
• Positive, accurate passing
• Good movement to help the player on the ball and progress down the pitch as quickly as possible
• Encourage the shooting player to get their head up before shooting to assess the position of the goalkeeper
• Accurate shooting
• Rebounds from the goalkeeper
• Goalkeeping

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkM5P0aBrIk